HAMILTON — A sluggish economy has been an added boost to rising enrollments at Tristate branch campuses.

        Students are taking advantage of cost savings and lower tuition as compared with main campuses, while older workers take classes to enhance their current careers or prepare them for new ones, campus officials say.

        Miami University's two branch campuses, in Hamilton and Middletown, reported record enrollments, including a 10 percent increase for the spring semester at Middletown.

        Student numbers are also rising at University of Cincinnati regional campuses in Blue Ash and Batavia. Branch campuses and community colleges across Kentucky and Indiana also saw increases.

        “When the economy tightens up and there aren't as many good-paying jobs, it really helps our cause,” said Michael M. Brown, spokesman for the Ohio Board of Regents. “That triggers a lot of people going back to get more training.”

        Indiana's branch campus enrollment has increased by 15 percent over last year's spring enrollment, according to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

        Michael Krause, enrollment manager for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, said enrollment in Kentucky's community colleges has jumped 35 percent in the last two years, and 22 percent this spring over last spring.

        Branch campuses can offer savings for students who live at home, as well as significantly lower tuitions — up to 56 percent savings at Miami University.

        Miami's main campus tuition for the academic year just ended was $7,600 for full-time, in-state students. It costs $3,300 annually for full-time, in-state students to attend either the Hamilton or Middletown campus.

        Alan McGee, an 18-year-old student at Miami's Hamilton campus who lives in Oxford, was considering attending the University of Colorado, a study abroad program in Irelandor Miami's Oxford campus.

        But it came down to money.

        Hamilton is “a lot cheaper,” Mr. McGee said.

        On April 19, Miami trustees approved an 6 percent tuition increase for branch campuses. The board earlier approved a 9.9 percent increase for the main campus.

        It will be difficult predict if the tuition increase will affect the rising enrollment trend, said Carole Johnson, public relations director for Miami-Hamilton, where enrollment this year reached 3,228, an all-time high.

        “Over the past 10 years, (we've seen) a steady increase in our enrollment regardless of what the economy is doing at the time,” Mrs. Johnson said.

        Mary Stagaman, director of college relations at Raymond Walters College, a regional campus of the University of Cincinnati, said the college also had a 10 percent increase in first-day enrollment for its winter quarter.

        She listed night classes, part-time enrollment options and lower costs as also helping to attract more students.

        Clermont College, another regional campus of UC, saw enrollment climb about 9 percent. The student body is changing in demographics, according to Lisa Haynes-Henry, director of marketing there.

        “We are now leaning toward a more traditional student,” which Ms. Haynes-Henry defined as 18-to-21-year-olds. “Rather than having students coming to campus and taking a class or two, they're having full course loads.”

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